1. The first two Republican presidential debates set ratings records for Fox News and CNN, a trend noted hopefully by the host for the third, the financial news channel CNBC. Our live coverage is here. It began with sharp exchanges, including one between Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio, who was criticized for missing votes in the Senate.

_______

Image

CreditRichland County Sheriff’s Department, via Associated Press

2. “He picked a student up, and he threw the student across the room; that is not a proper technique,” a South Carolina sheriff said as he fired Deputy Ben Fields, above, for a classroom confrontation on Monday with an African-American teenage girl that was recorded by fellow students. A Justice Department investigation could lead to criminal charges.

Image

CreditStephen Crowley/The New York Times

3. The House approved a sweeping budget measure and sent it to the Senate, after a deal engineered by the outgoing speaker, John Boehner. He is expected to hand over his gavel to Paul Ryan on Thursday, with his final act vanquishing not Democrats but the conservative Republicans who brought him down.

_______

Image

CreditU.S. Army, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

4. Oops. A military surveillance blimp that normally floats over Maryland became mysteriously untethered and wandered off, finally coming down 160 miles away in Pennsylvania. The biggest damage was snapped power lines from its dragging tether — and a bruise to the reputation of the air defense command Norad. Above, one of the blimps last year.

_______

Image

CreditChristopher Smith for The New York Times

5. World Series Game 2: The Kansas City Royals erupted in the fifth inning, scoring four runs, and they went on to beat the Mets, 7-1.

_______

Image

CreditRichard Perry/The New York Times

6. Game 1 also set off a heartbreaking debate on withholding news of a death, after news broke that the wife of the Royals starting pitcher, Edinson Volquez, had asked the team not to tell him that his father had died. “There is no road map, but you do what the family asks you to do,” a teammate said, “and it was real special to them that Eddy goes out and pitches this game.”

_______

Image

CreditNASA

7. “These are optimist, almost sci-fi times,” our science reporter Dennis Overbye wrote. He was reporting on NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, which has collected evidence of molecules associated with life from one of Saturn’s moons. The craft just made its closest pass ever for data that could help determine whether surface conditions could support life.

_______

Image

CreditMatt Marton/Associated Press

8. A former Republican House speaker,J. Dennis Hastert, pleaded guilty to trying to evade federal banking laws, in a case that federal sources say is linked to hush money over claims of sexual misconduct with a male student decades ago. Sentencing was scheduled for Feb. 29.

_______

Image

CreditIBM, PR Newswire

9. Watson may become your weatherman. IBM is buying most of the Weather Company, including Weather.com, a deal said to be worth $2 billion. The Weather Company’s chief executive listed new capacities from combining his databanks with Watson’s artificial intelligence: “Forecast whether someone should fly or delay a trip. Exactly where to evacuate people from a hurricane. Be more cognitive.”

10. New details emerged about the 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden. Interviews with top officials revealed that for weeks beforehand, four federal lawyers worked frantically and secretly to frame justifications, including making the mission lethal and burying the target at sea. One lawyer was recalled as saying they had to be ready “to explain our legal conclusions, particularly if the operation goes terribly badly.”

_______

Image

CreditKhalil Ashawi/Reuters

11. The U.S. dropped its objections to Iran’s joining talks on the Syrian conflict, adding a seat at the table in Vienna for Friday alongside Russia, several European Union nations, Turkey and five Arab countries. An analyst called Iran’s agreement to participate “a big step forward,” saying “it shows that, following the nuclear agreement, Iran is now ready to cooperate on crisis management in the Middle East.”

_______

Image

CreditAgence France-Presse — Getty Images

12. Children at a private school in Chennai, India, expressed their admiration for Bill Gates, the world’s richest man, with celebrations for his 60th birthday. The school said the point was “to hail his philanthropic efforts and take a solemn promise to work hard, become rich and help others.”

_______

Video

Fox’s broadcast of Game 1 of the World Series on Tuesday night went dark for several minutes because of a power outage. Before the signal was restored, one at-bat had been missed. Here is that at-bat.CreditCreditJamie Squire/Getty Images

13. Watch: Now, about those four minutes lost from the broadcast of Game 1 of the World Series. Here’s the at-bat that everybody who wasn’t at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City missed. Enjoy!